Windows 7

This week the teams behind the NVIDIA GeForce Experience have unleashed the Open Beta version of the software, available for download by not just the select few (40,000 users, to be fair), but the greater public - you can grab it now! This Open Beta allows you access to the one and only GeForce Experience, a system where the teams of professionals and undeniably powerfully-minded graphics know-it-alls of NVIDIA's GeForce ranks have for you sets of optimizations for the games you play all the time. In short: your PC games are about to get a whole lot more awesome.

What we've got here is the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m Ultrabook, a business-oriented notebook made to work in the Windows 8 environment with an amalgamation of hardware that's precision-tuned to suit your in- and out-of-office needs. At first glance, this machine doesn't strike one as the most unique piece of machinery on the planet - it's a silver laptop, after all. But what it lacks in unique aesthetics, it more than makes up for in details that we'd consider suggesting this device to friends for on their own.

The folks at Microsoft are glad to report that they've reached 40 million Windows 8 licenses sold in the new operating system's first month on the market. Microsoft notes specifically that "to-date Microsoft has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses" and wants to make it clear that they're not just pumped up about this pace of upgrade and new users, they're glad to share that it's outpacing the adoption of Windows 7.

Along with Windows 8, Windows RT, and Windows Phone 8, Microsoft has released a handful of new keyboards, trying to cover the wide range of people who need a physical keyboard regardless of it they're working on desktop or on a tablet. Of all of these keyboards, the new Sculpt Comfort Keyboard is probably the most interesting. The Sculpt is another ergonomic keyboard in a sea of products that claim to cut down on wrist strain and actually make typing easier. The question is whether that's actually the case, or if it's all PR fluff meant to get us to hand over cash for a keyboard we might not even need. Read on to hear the verdict.

Microsoft has detailed all of the changes made with DirectX 11.1, and even though there aren't too many worth writing about, there's one new feature that is: native support for stereoscopic 3D. Gone are the days of adding support for 3D based on a particular graphics card, at least as far as DirectX 11.1 is concerned. The problem is that you'll need to be using Windows 8 in order to take advantage of DirectX 11.1.

Skitch, the popular screenshot and image-editing tool, has arrived for Windows 7 and Windows 8. The "Windows Desktop" version is essentially for Windows 7, but it also works on Windows 8 as a legacy app. The Windows 8 version, however, is fully compatible with Microsoft's new operating system, so you'll get a seamless Skitch experience in Windows 8 when using their native Windows 8 app.

We're live at Microsoft's big Windows 8 event in New York City, with the big talking point being the launch of the brand new OS. Microsoft's Steven Sinofaky is currently on stage, talking about the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8. The new OS goes live at 12:01 AM local time tomorrow morning around the world, and for consumers, the upgrade to the new version starts at $39.99.

Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky is on stage at the company's Windows 8 event talking numbers and statistics of Microsoft's various products. So far, a whopping 670 million licenses of Windows 7 have been sold worldwide. That's a huge number considering the operating system came out only three years ago.

Windows 8 will be getting a completely-redesigned version of Internet Explorer when the new operating system releases on October 26, and Microsoft has mentioned in the past that it plans to bring the same version to Windows 7 at some point. The company announced today that Internet Explorer 10 will be hitting Windows 7 in mid-November.